Love is a Battlefield
by Loki's-Phantom-x
Summary: Clint is injured in a mission and Bruce cleans him up. Utter fluff. Clint Barton/Bruce Banner. R&R, x.


**Love is a Battlefield**

**Summary**: Clint is injured in a mission and Bruce cleans him up. Fluff. Clint Barton/Bruce Banner.

**-x-**

Clint Barton never thought of himself as a man to settle into a relationship; hell, he'd probably banged half the ladies in New York, a few men too, and never called them back. But he found himself happy and he found he liked it. Bruce Banner wasn't perfect, no one was, really. But Clint found him perfect, found him attractive, charismatic and brilliant, even if Bruce only thought of himself as shy, average looking and, well, brilliant. The one thing that bothered Bruce, Clint knew, was 'the other guy'. The Hulk stopped Bruce 'doing' a lot of things, which annoyed the hell out of the scientist. It had been a while since Bruce had been intimate and he thought that would bother Clint so he tried to get out of their dating, but Clint was surprisingly supportive. They spent far too much time together, in the lab, Bruce watching Clint practise his archery without even looking at the targets. But in the recent days, Clint was never around; always out on missions with Nat, leaving Bruce to wonder when his lover would return to him and in what state.

It was 5am and Clint found it hard to walk in his tired state. He and Natasha had been called out the night before for a mission that required 'the cover of darkness.' All night Clint had thought of Bruce, curled up in their shared bed beneath the white sheets, hair mussed, snoring lightly. Now he was back at the Avengers mansion, he couldn't wait to curl up with his man. Saying a quick goodnight to Natasha, he dropped off his bow and arrows in the weapons vault before he headed to his bedroom. The thought of seeing Bruce made Clint walk faster, his body screaming out in agony as he did so. Stopping at the door of the bedroom, he pushed the door open. The room was still pretty dark, the only light source being from the en suite bathroom. Bruce must have left the light on for him, he thought to himself. Moving over to the bathroom, he pushed open the door and turned on the tap at the sink, washing the blood and grime from his skin. His whole body felt like lead, like he would drop to the floor at any moment. Slashing his face with water, he watched as red tinted drops fell back into the sink, probably from the bleeding gash on his forehead. He turned to kick off his boots and peel off the top half of his suit, another gash across his abdomen making it hard to take off quickly. He bit his lip in agony as he pulled it off, pulling at the dried in blood and making the gash start to bleed once more. That bitch would need stitches. Sighing deeply to himself, he went searching for the first aid kit, his hand trying to stop the flow of blood coming from his wound. He was so busy looking for the kit, he didn't hear the rustling of the bed sheets or the soft padding of feet on the carpet, indicating Bruce was awake. Bruce moved into the doorway of the bathroom, noting blots of blood on the floor next to Clint and how tense Clint seemed to be.

"Clint?"

Clint started, smacking his head off the top of the cupboard before sitting back on his heels, turning to look at his lover. Bruce stood there in a pair of black boxers and nothing else, his hair ruffled, chest hair ruffled a little too and some stubble on his chin. God, he was worthy of staring at.

"Clint, you're injured."

Clint looked down at the blood streaming out between his fingers as he pressed tight against the wound. He looked up at Bruce once more. "Yeah. It hurts like a bitch." Bruce moved into the room, taking Clint's clean hand to pull him to his feet before sitting him down on the closed toilet lid. Clint just let himself be moved, his whole body in agony. Bruce went searching for the first aid kit, quickly locating it and turning back to his injured lover. Clint looked awful. Everything about him screamed 'agony'. Ugly bruises were appearing on his skin almost by the second and he was covered in both wet and dried blood. Kneeling in front of Clint, he slipped a hand against his cheek, making him look at Bruce.

"What happened, Clint?"

"Not much, y'know," Clint said, looking down at his knees, too tired to lift his head. "They nearly found Natasha so I had to distract them. Fucking went for me. Guy with an axe was nearly my downfall." Bruce suddenly had so many images of Clint if the axe-man had gotten to him. Shaking his head, shaking his thoughts away, he turned to the sink, wetting a cloth before turning back to his lover. He quickly pressed the cloth to Clint's bleeding wound, causing the archer to bite his lip against the sting. His hand gripped Bruce's shoulder, tightening when the pain in the wound worsened.

"Easy, Clint. I'll try to be as quick as I can," Bruce said. Clint just nodded before he moved his hand to his lover's neck, his thumb stroking Bruce's cheek gently.

"I should be snuggling you in bed, not bleeding all over the bathroom floor," Clint said. "I'm sorry." Bruce looked up at him, an amused look on his face,

"I think I forgive you," he said, with a chuckle. Then he got to work on stitching up his lover. Clint was a good patient most of the time, but he hated needles. Especially 'big-ass needles', as he liked to call them. Bruce could feel the sweat on Clint's body build up each time the needle penetrated the skin. Clint even buried his head in Bruce's neck for a moment, almost biting down on Bruce's skin, wanting to beg him to stop. Bruce hated doing this for anyone, never mind his boyfriend. He could tell that Clint was ready to pass out. He was a wreck.

"I can't take much more," Clint whispered against his neck, his hot breath on his skin making Bruce's heart beat that little faster.

"Just a few more, I promise," Bruce said gently as the pushed the needle through his skin once more. Clint groaned deeply, his whole body in agony, the needle not helping matters.

"You're gonna owe me a sponge bath, Dr Banner, for this torture," Clint said, trying to take his mind off the damn needle.

"Maybe another time. You are going to go to sleep," Bruce said, taking the scissors from next to him and cutting away the excess thread. "There, all done. Let's get the rest of this blood off you before you get into my clean bed."

"So there is going to be a sponge bath?" Clint asked, standing from the closed toilet lid, groaning in pain as he stretched up.

"You're insufferable," Bruce commented with a grin.

"Yeah, but that's why you love me," Clint replied, causing Bruce's cheeks to redden and his smile to get a little bigger.

"Get in the damn bathtub," the scientist said. "I'm only gonna give you a quick rub down."

"Do you say that to all your patients?" Bruce couldn't help but laugh out loud as he tried to help Clint out of his pants.

"No, only the ones that I like," he said. Turning on the shower, Clint jumped into the bathtub, Bruce soaking a cloth in the water before he ran it over Clint's bruised body. He washed him down, the bottom of the tub turning red with the amount of blood coming from his lover. Clint was fighting to keep upright, his eyelids drooping from how tired he was. Once Bruce was convinced he was clean, he grabbed a towel for him and helped him step out. "Dry yourself off." Bruce went into the bedroom to fetch Clint a clean pair of boxer shorts which he took to him. Once Clint was dry and in the boxers, Bruce helped him to the bed, pulling the sheets back and helping him in.

"Hmm, you gonna come kiss me better?" Clint asked, with a smile. Bruce couldn't help but smile back.

"In a minute." Bruce went to quickly clean up the bathroom before he threw the bloody towels in the hamper and turned off the light. He moved over to the bed, climbing in beside Clint, who turned on his side and moved closer to his lover, snuggling right into his side.

"So tired, baby," Clint whispered, his eyelids drooping again. Bruce kissed his cheek.

"Then sleep. I'm not going anywhere," he whispered back. Suddenly Clint moved his head so that his lips came into contact with Bruce's, both men moaning gently as their kisses deepened, Clint's hand moving down Bruce's back to his backside, giving it a firm squeeze, making Bruce giggle. "Come on ..." he pressed three more quick kisses to Clint's lips. "Let's go to sleep." Clint smiled once more before settling his head onto his pillow and closing his eyes, Bruce following suit, listening for his boyfriend's breathing to become even and deep. But just before Bruce fell asleep himself, he was certain he heard Clint mutter:

"I love you."

And all Bruce could do was smile happily.

* * *

**Hope you guys like it. I ship Hulkeye more than I should. :) xx**


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